NEW DELHI: Kanhaiya Kumar, Prashant Kishor and Mahua Moitra headlined the Forbes List of 20 people to watch out for in 2020s.
Forbes India recently published a prestigious list of 20 important personalities who will attract attention in the next decade.
Defining faces of the decade
While mentioning the names of Kahnaiya, the former JNU Students’ Union president, Kishor, the poll strategist and JD(U) national vice-president and Moitra, the Investment banker-turned-Trinamool Congress lawmaker, the Forbes India magazine said, “They could be the defining faces of the decade.” believing that young leaders can play an important role in India’s politics in the coming decade.
Two persons from Bihar namely Brahmin Prashant Kishor-12th place and Kanhaiya Kumar –16th were the biggest name in the list.
Prashant Kishor hails from Sasaram in Rohtas district and Kanhaiya has been born and brought up in Begusarai district.
Kishor-‘deciding figure’ in politics
Kishor is one of the most sought-after political strategists in the country shot to fame in 2011. Kishor helped the BJP win the Gujarat elections. In 2014, Kishore is the the man behind Narendra Modi’s 2014 Lok Sabha win.
The former UN official, who founded the Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), had also successfully ran the campaign of the Nitish Kumar-led Grand Alliance during the 2015 Bihar Assembly election.
Later on, the 43-year-old election strategist-turned-politician add more feathers to his already glittering hat by helping YSR Jagan Mohan Reddy win Andhra Pradesh elections and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra elections in 2019.
“Prashant Kishor has been a political strategist since 2011 when he helped the BJP win the Gujarat state elections. This was followed by his 2014 campaign for the BJP under his political strategy firm Citizen for Accountable Governance (CAG) which helped it win the Lok Sabha elections. The CAG was renamed as I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee) and Kishor now serves as mentor to the organization,” says Forbes India Magazine.
Kanhaiya Kumar– face of youth politics
In 2016, Kanhaiya Kumar became the face of student politics in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) after a controversial event and was charged in sedition case.
Kahnaiya has caught the imagination of the local public due to his powerful oratory skills.
Kanhaiya contested as a CPI Candidate for Begusarai constituency during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but loss to BJP veteran Giriraj Singh.
“Kanhaiya Kumar went on to become the face of student politics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) after he was slapped with sedition charges in 2016. A doctorate from JNU, he fought his first electoral battle during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Begusarai constituency in Bihar for CPI. Though he lost to Giriraj Singh of BJP by 4.2 lakh votes, he managed to poll 22.03 per cent votes. Political analysts say while it is early days for him, Kumar is someone who has been actively voicing his views across the country, questioning the government and its policies. A powerful orator, he is expected to make a mark in Indian politics in the future,” Forbes India says.
Mahua Moitra– foremost voices of dissent
Mahua Moitra, a graduate in economics and mathematics from Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts after leaving her cushy job, she joined politics in September 2008, when Rahul Gandhi drafted her in the Youth Congress as a state coordinator for his “Aam Aadmi Ka Sipahi” project.
Two years later, she switched to the Trinamool Congress.
The 44-year-old MP from West Bengal’s Krishnanagar Lok Sabha constituency turned heads with her fiery speech in Parliament last year.
A critique of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Moitra rated by Forbes as the foremost voices of dissent among the opposition.
Apart from Prashant and Kanhaiya and Moitra, other prominent Indians in the list are Dushyant Chautala (deputy CM of Haryana), the Godrej family (of Adi Godrej) and Garima Arora (chef and the first Indian woman to receive a Michelin star).